"Not for us--Not for us.
"We must perish in the wilderness.--Some day. Somewhen. But not for
us....
"Come to think, it is all the Child. The future is the Child. The
Future. What are we--any of us--but servants or traitors to that?...
* * * * *
"Natural Selection--it follows ... this way is happiness ... must
be. There can be no other."
He sighed. "To last a lifetime, that is.
"And yet--it is almost as if Life had played me a trick--promised so
much--given so little!...
"No! One must not look at it in that way! That will not do! That will
_not_ do.
"Career! In itself it is a career--the most important career in the
world. Father! Why should I want more?
"And ... Ethel! No wonder she seemed shallow ... She has been
shallow. No wonder she was restless. Unfulfilled ... What had she to
do? She was drudge, she was toy ...
"Yes. This is life. This alone is life! For this we were made and
born. All these other things--all other things--they are only a sort
of play....
"Play!"
His eyes came back to the Schema. His hands shifted to the opposite
corner and he hesitated. The vision of that arranged Career, that
ordered sequence of work and successes, distinctions and yet further
distinctions, rose brightly from the symbol.
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